Politics
State Agency to Probe Whether Owner of South Shore Apartment Complex Raided by Feds Tipped Off ICE
(WTTW News)
State officials will probe whether the owner of a South Shore apartment building raided by federal agents in September in an extravaganza designed to go viral on social media tipped off immigration agents in an effort to force out Black and Latino residents, officials said.
The Illinois Department of Human Rights will investigate whether the three firms that own and manage the building at 7500 S. South Shore Drive committed housing discrimination, officials said.
The investigation will focus on “allegations that the building owner and management tipped federal officials about the presence of Venezuelan immigrants in the building in order to intimidate and coerce the building’s Black and Hispanic tenants into leaving the building, based on stereotypes or hostility toward Venezuelan immigrants,” according to a statement from state officials.
“These allegations of housing discrimination raise serious concerns for people struggling to maintain housing — and the communities that have been profiled and relentlessly targeted by the federal government during its violent immigration enforcement operations,” Governor JB Pritzker said in a statement. “State law prohibits discrimination, and that includes aiding or abetting conduct intended to interfere with housing and civil rights. Illinois will not tolerate conduct that puts anyone in Illinois at risk of discrimination or harm.“
Representatives of 7500 Shore A LLC, Trinity Flood, and Strength in Management LLC could not be reached for comment.
Pritzker, who is running for a third term as governor and considering a run for president in 2028, ordered state agencies on Oct. 3 to evaluate the treatment of four children detained during the Sept. 30 raid, which touched off an international furor.
No results from that probe have been announced.
Without providing evidence, federal officials said 300 agents raided the South Shore apartment building to arrest members of the Tren de Aragua criminal organization, which originated in Venezuela. Federal officials said 37 people were arrested, but no one was ever charged with a crime, ProPublica reported.
Federal officials have never disclosed why agents chose to raid a nondescript apartment building in the heart of South Shore. Some residents told reporters they saw people they believe to be federal agents in the building before the high-profile raid.
WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times found a map of the building after the raid that labeled each unit inside the five-floor building as “vacant,” “tenant” or as “firearms.”
White stickers, made out of duct tape and a marker, remained on the doors of units that had been broken down after the raid, according to WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times.
The apartment building became a home for dozens of migrants who made their way to Chicago from the southern border on buses paid for by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in an attempt to bolster President Donald Trump’s bid for reelection.
Approximately 300 federal agents conducted the late-night raid, with some landing on the building from Blackhawk helicopters, according to a video produced by federal officials and posted on social media.
Other agents arrived in moving vans and large trucks, according to the video.
The charge allows state officials to begin probing whether “armed federal agents in military uniforms forcibly entered nearly all the 130 units in the 5-story building,” according to a statement. “Agents dragged tenants and their children outside, separated them based on their race, ancestry, and national origin, and left them zip-tied for hours outside the building.”
State officials will also probe reports that when “tenants were permitted to return to the building, they found their doors kicked down or ripped from the hinges and their furniture and belongings removed, tossed, or damaged,” according to the statement. “The raid left their residences uninhabitable. The charge also alleges that within hours after the raid, workers employed or contracted by 7500 S Shore building management began putting tenants’ belongings in the trash and clearing out units vacated by the raid.”
“The conduct alleged in this matter reflects more than isolated harm,” Illinois Department of Human Rights Director Jim Bennett said in a statement. “It describes a pattern of intimidation that reverberates through our communities.”
A Cook County judge ordered all remaining residents of the building to move out no later than Dec. 10.
Residents of the building made thousands of service and emergency calls in the years before the raid as the building deteriorated and their landlord failed to respond to their pleas for help, Block Club Chicago reported.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
